FTFA
>>Both plans come with a 30-day free trial and include "unlimited in-store exchanges of by-mail rentals."

So the in-store exchange is back?
Bastards! I used to be a fairly happy Blockbuster customer until they cancelled in-store exchange. I moved to Netflix and, evidently, I was not alone. At the time, Blockbuster said stores were losing money because of this.
So why did they bring the plan back? Seems to me they tried to see just how much they could get out of their customers and miscalculated. Badly.

Of course, it's not the first time Blockbuster has made a dumb mistake. Remember the "No Late Fees" fiasco?

Agreed. Never heard of it until last week, when I wanted to stitch five photos together. Took a little while to figure it out but did a great job.

For Immediate release

Comcast-NBC announced today that Meredith Attwell Baker is joining the company as a lobbyist.

In our previous professional dealings, the company has found Attwell Baker to be wide open to hard and long discussions. Though faced with difficult positions, Attwell Baker was always flexible and willing to prod new and unexplored avenues. The drippings of our mutual efforts leave a permanent mark on the fabric of America and its citizens.

Comcast-NBC will introduce Attwell Baker Thursday morning. Just as soon as she cleans her chin.

Google already offers storage at 20GB for $5/yr; 80GB for $20.
Is it really worth the trouble?

Groupon seems to me like one of those ideas we'll look back in retrospect and think, "Why was it worth that much? It was so obvious!"

The idea of landing a big number of first-time customers sounds great until the customers start coming in. From the experiences of business owners I know, Grouponers were, simply put, cheap (not condemning cheap people here, as the times demand it for many.) If the groupon is "get $50 for $25," you better damn be sure most customers will spend the $50 and not a penny more. And if it's a restaurant, they'll tip on the $25.
I expect that those customers will not be back; they will move on to the next goupon.They're not looking for a new place to eat; they're looking for a deal.
And for consumers, the deals are already being watered down by the typical (one month free at the gym, or free karate classes for a week) that you see everywhere.

As for the businesses themselves,I wonder how many more of these kind of situations we'll see - a restaurant using a Groupon-like company hoping to land quick cash in desperation.

Also, from my conversations with people who own businesses, Groupon's sales approach is very aggressive. They put dollar signs in the business owner's eyes. But eventually, they'll get found out. Right now, people don't want to miss out on this since all the cool kids are doing it.

Of course there are businesses who've had great results with Groupon. I just think it's lunacy to think they're worth $15B.

The letter from congressman George Mahon (D-TX) is disheartening.
He tells Hoover that "several of my constituents" have expressed alarm about the book. He then says he has not read the book but "the reviews have caused quite a bit of controversy." Finally, he asks for something to tell the constituents.
The process is totally hollow. And isn't that the way things continue to work40 years later? If anything, it's worse. Today's congressperson would scream louder and vilify the opposition (all while willingly ignorant about the issue at hand.)

After reading the subject, I thought the law was to cut down on plastic garbage. Too bad.

Talk about brainless consumption. Those "toys" are completely useless. If they do anything at all, they'll break after a few hours, and they exist only there to promote new consumption (movies, TV, other toys.)
I guess they keep kids entertained for the rest of the ride or meal, therefore freeing parents of the task of interaction.

The stunts being done by these cities and their officials border on begging. I mean, sure it'd be cool to land the Google network, but c'mon man! Hold on to some dignity.

This has been an interesting example of the mindset of the politicians as opposed to normal people, though. Some politicians are making fools of themselves to try and attract Google's gaze. Would normal people even consider doing something like this? Of course not. Why would having a mayor diving in icy waters or naming a child after the Google guys convince them to move to your town?

For most politicians, begging and whoring themselves comes naturally. That's what's scary about this.

10 million??

If you *really* want to get your way, then you have to spend $100 million, like the drug companies did.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/opinion/21holtz-eakin.html

Just imagine...they spent $100 million dollars to get something passed. Their returns must be mind-boggling.

This project was about two things:
1) Lining the pockets of a lot of people
2) Making those who fear illegal immigration feel better

Goal 1 was *very* successful. Goal 2, not as much but...there will be other mufti-million dollar projects coming up that will.

Seriously, did anyone really think this would work? Of course not. Plain common sense would immediately tell you this was destined for failure. Government and corporations simply ignored that and moved forward, That's a difference between "them" and "us."

Note that Nutella is available in two versions in the US: European and US-made.
The imported version does not contain palm oil and it tastes, in my opinion, much better. Unfortunately, it costs twice as much.

My favorite is the "ding" at the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L29BCQFfqVo